You’ve been told your knees are “bone on bone.”
That you’ll need surgery someday.
That your back has completely collapsed. That maybe, if you’re lucky, a steroid shot or a round of gabapentin might buy you a few more months before your next MRI looks even worse.
But what if I told you—your body might actually be able to fix itself? Maybe you could skip that knee replacement or back surgery altogether?
Welcome back to The Dysfunction Files folks. I’m Dr. Kristen Lindgren, and today we’re stepping into the future. A future that’s already here.
We’re talking about regenerative medicine: the field that dares to ask, “What if we could stop managing the damage… and start reversing it?”
Because let’s face it: we have a medical system that’s excellent at managing chronic disease and injury. We are world-class at putting duct-tape over the dashboard light. But dropping in a brand new engine? Not so much.
Regenerative medicine claims to quite literally change the rules of the game. Instead of replacing your worn-out knee joint with a plastic one, restoring the cartilage you had at 20? Instead of bypassing clogged coronary arteries, building brand new ones? Instead of shutting down autoimmune disease with steroids and biologics, naturally calming down your immune system back to its healthy normal state? Well, that doesn’t sound very real to me. Does it to you?
Today, we’re going to take a high level look at the world of this mystery term known as regenerative medicine—what it is, how it works, the wild wild west of the regulatory landscape, and why the most powerful healing tools available are often the ones you’re told to be afraid of. Let’s get into it.
What is Regenerative Medicine?
At its core, regenerative medicine is about one thing: restoring function.
Not masking symptoms. Not suppressing inflammation. Not micromanaging your pain with prescriptions. But helping the body rebuild, regrow, and regenerate what’s been lost. They say death and taxes are the only two for sure deals in this life, and that’s no joke. We’ll drill down on taxes are theft next week. But before we actually get to die, we go through the falling completely apart stage first. To some extent or another we’re all exposed to garbage food, garbage air, poisonous chemicals in everything– there’s no shortage of effort from external sources to hasten the time between now and 6 feet under. On top of all the external forces, our ability to repair any sort of damage or inflammation declines rapidly over time. Think about how long it takes for a child to recover from a broken bone. How about a 30 year old athlete? An 80 year old woman in a nursing home? The cells and the signals those cells send to repair, regenerate, and manage inflammation go on permanent vacation as we age. So we find ourselves in a situation where our house is on fire and the fire department is out to lunch.
The practice of medicine is supposed to help us out – and it does. Kind of. Sometimes. If your arm gets ripped off in a motor vehicle accident, modern medicine is brilliant. But the ‘just stitch the arm back on the human’ approach kind of loses its luster there. Medicine today spends the rest of its resources prescribing pills and recommending surgeries – which of course also need the pills – masking symptoms and managing numbers so we all stop complaining but yet continue to come back for more. It’s a brilliant business strategy actually.
Regenerative medicine takes a different approach. It says hey –what was it about your physiology as a young person that changed now that you’re old? Can we replace some of those important regenerative cells and the signals they send and essentially trick the body into thinking it’s young again? That it can repair – itself? If we give it the right tools and instructions, could that be possible? Well, much to the chagrin of the regulators, the data in this arena is quickly mounting. Here’s the heavy hitter list:
- PRP (Platelet-Rich Plasma): PRP is your own blood, spun down to concentrate the platelets and growth factors. When you trip in the dark on your stupid work bag and catapult yourself into a door jam, breaking your arm in two places, it’s your platelets and growth factors that are first on the scene. PRP has been around for a long time and has rapidly expanded into aesthetic medicine, hair restoration, sexual wellnes, and functional medicine – mostly due to its safety profile and minimally invasive nature. PRP is great because it’s relatively inexpensive, uses your own cells, and is delivered with a needle. No surgery knives required. Downside? Your platelets are old. Just like you. They can help kick start the healing process but they’re really only one part of the ‘inflammaging’ puzzle. PRP isn’t FDA approved for any reason whatsoever (that’s going to be a recurring theme here) so this is all out of pocket expense. That marketing about PRP being FDA approved is BS – it’s the kits for the blood draw that are FDA approved. Not the PRP. OK next up…
- Peptides: We’ve already talked a lot about peptides – I’ll put some links below for deep dives on those but peptides are signaling molecules. They turn up the volume on very specific pathways in the body. Some are for brain function, some are for mitochondrial repair and others, like BPC-157 and TB-500 are for healing and regeneration. Peptides are signals your body makes anyway. I did a whole ‘peptide files’ on this topic so you know I absolutely love them. Can they move mountains? No. But according to all available data, they are safe, they are effective, they are inexpensive (relatively speaking), and they are easy to administer. Some you take in a capsule, most you use via subcutaneous injection. Side effects are generally nil. The FDA hates these. They are largely ‘category 2’ which is code word for ‘ah, we have serious safety concerns here’ but just like the Epstein files, they won’t disclose what those are. Again, peptides are signaling molecules that direct the repair process, reduce inflammation, and promote tissue healing.
- Exosomes: Exosomes are pretty cool. Exosomes are tiny extracellular vesicles that act like switchboard operators for healing. Think of them kind of like you think about peptides. They direct traffic, tell stuff what to do, but these signals come from stem cells. They send microscopic text messages between cells, telling your body where to go and what to fix. Exosomes are one of the major ways stem cells use to promote regeneration. Again, not FDA approved for any reason whatsoever. Expensive-ish on the cash scale. Highly effective according to published data. Typically given via needle in the doctor’s office.
- Stem cells: Now we’re finally in the meat of this episode and this is where things get spicy – and pricey.
Not all stem cells are created equal. Some are from your own body. Others come from donor tissue. And in the U.S., that distinction is a regulatory minefield.
Before I get too lost in the weeds on this, let me define that word “stem cell”. Well that’s two words. Generally speaking stem cells are the cells that turned into all of your different organs before you were born. You started out on this journey we call life as a single solitary stem cell long long ago. There are different kinds of stem cells. For the purposes of regenerative medicine we are talking about a subclass of stem cells called ‘mesenchymal stem cells’ or MSCs for short. These are adult stem cells – even if they’re in a 5 year old, they’re considered to be adult stem cells and not fetal or embryonic stem cells. Where do these stem cells come from? I’m so glad that you asked.
Autologous Vs Allogenic: The Stem Cell Civil War
OK let’s break this down. Regenerative medicine sources these magical MSCs from you or from someone else.
- Autologous therapies use your own tissue. That might be your blood (like PRP), your fat (from liposuction – called SVF), or bone marrow (aspirated from your hip – called BMAC). These cells are taken out of you, dusted off, and reinjected right back in.
- Allogenic therapies use donated tissue from postnatal sources like umbilical cord or placental tissue. The placenta is a magical and mystical creature, highly concentrated with MSCs. After being heavily screened and tested, these cells are collected from healthy, live births, processed in regulated labs, and preserved for clinical use. This is often referred to as ‘Wharton’s jelly’ because it’s this ‘jelly’ that provides structural integrity to the placenta and umbilical cord. Otherwise, when your baby is doing somersaults in utero, it would kink the hose. Got me?
OK. Contrary to popular belief, MSCs don’t ‘turn into anything’. We used to think that’s how they worked but they don’t. Dr. Arnold Caplan, the godfather of MSCs, said in hindsight he wished he had named them ‘medicinal signaling cells’ and not ‘mesenchymal stem cells’ because it’s the signals they send (like exosomes) to the body that direct repair and regeneration.
There is more than a little bit of drama in this whole stem cell arena and it’s been rather fascinating to watch. There are two camps – the ‘use your own stem cells’ camp and the ‘use some one elses’.
The autologous or use your own camp has waged literal war on allogenic or postnasal tissue. Their marketing is very clear. They say there are “no live cells” in Wharton’s jelly. It’s just dead junk. It’s not safe. Ah – none of that is true. What is true is there was a biologics company that cut some corners, did some bad things. People then had some issues with their products, the company got in lots of trouble, and the owner is now in jail. What’s also true is that the people yelling the loudest about ‘using your own stem cells’ are, you know, the people selling the PRP kits, bone marrow aspiration devices, and liposuction systems. Hmm.
The lady doth protest too much, me thinks.
Properly processed allogenic tissue contains viable cells, bioactive growth factors, cytokines, and scaffolding molecules that support repair. Again,, these products are not embryonic stem cells. They are postnatal. Ethically sourced. Far less invasive than digging into someone’s hip with a giant needle, and in my opinion and that of the data, much more effective from a regenerative medicine standpoint because we’re talking about one-day-old cells and not 50-year-old cells.
In my practice, I use exclusively allogenic postnatal tissue for regenerative therapy. Why? Because I’ve seen the efficacy with my own eyes.
Why People Go Abroad For Stem Cells
You’ve probably heard the stories: people flying to Panama, Mexico, Germany, or the Bahamas for stem cell treatment.
Is it risky? Not necessarily.
In fact, some of the most advanced regenerative medicine clinics in the world are outside the U.S., and there’s a reason for that. I’m looking at you FDA.
In the United States, the FDA prohibits something called expansion of mesenchymal stem cells. That means you can harvest them—but you can’t grow them in culture to ‘get more cells’ – which is a marketing strategy. Hey, if you come to our clinic, you’ll get this many more millions of stem cells. Which sounds good right – if some is good more has to be better. Well…not really. Mesenchymal stem cells are bald. They don’t have any markers on the outside of them that would trigger an immune response. That’s why you can take MSCs from any healthy postnasal tissue and put it into anyone else without having to ‘match’ donor to recipient. Once you expand them in a petri dish for 30 days to make millions, they can start to ‘differentiate’ we say or start sending up flags. I have personally never ever not a one time ever seen an adverse immune response to non-expanded postnatal tissue but I have heard some wild stories about folks having huge inflammatory responses overseas.
What's Legal & Available In The U.S.?
So again, in spite of the data supporting this, none of these regenerative therapies have been green lighted by the regulatory bodies here in the US. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions as to why that is (you can’t patent a stem cell). But not being FDA approved doesn’t mean you can’t choose to try these things anyway. At least for now.
In the U.S., you can legally access:
- PRP therapies
- Peptide therapies (though the FDA is getting increasingly weird about it)
- Allogenic postnatal tissue (within FDA 361 guidelines)
- Exosomes (depending on how they’re classified)
- And autologous stem cell therapy
You can’t:
- Use embryonic stem cells
- Expand your own cells in culture for reinjection
- Sell unapproved products claiming to cure diseases
So if you’re interested in learning more about regenerative therapy for you or someone you know, what should you look for?
- A provider who explains where the tissue comes from, how it’s stored, and what it’s used for
- A clinic that focuses on restoring function, not selling packages
- A treatment plan that integrates lifestyle, nutrition, and systemic support (not just expensive injections)
None of these therapies are cheap and that’s for a reason. There is a lot of time, effort, and skill that goes into developing these products and an equal amount in the provider administering them.
Regenerative medicine is not science fiction. It’s not snake oil. It’s not some underground conspiracy.
It’s a rapidly evolving field that asks the most fundamental functional medicine question:
“What if your body isn’t broken—it’s just waiting for the right signal to heal?”
That’s the power of regenerative therapies. They don’t just patch you up—they aim to restore you.
And the truth? That’s exactly what “they” don’t want you to know.
Because if you could regrow your joints, reverse your degeneration, or reboot your immune system—without a surgery, a lifetime of medication, or a 7-minute insurance visit… well, you might stop being a “customer” altogether. Regenerative medicine is demonstrating that Healing is possible. And it’s already here.
